Effects of planning on performance of trust‐violating versus tactful, white lies: How are familiar speech acts cognitively represented?

Planning should benefit performance of unfamiliar speech acts more than familiar speech acts. A review of research suggests that tactful white lies may typically be familiar, while trust‐violating lies may not be. In this study, participants delivered either spontaneous or planned white lies or trust‐violating lies in response to a confederate's query. Findings suggest that spontaneously telling trust‐violating lies required more cognitive effort, as evidenced by longer pause durations, than did performing planned trust‐violating lies. Also, spontaneous trust‐violating lies required more effort than spontaneous familiar lies.